2 year old ball won't eat and seems very stressed.

I am looking for some troubleshooting help here to find what's wrong with my baby. I have a 2 year old male ball python. He's always been a good eater and is usually very relaxed. Lately he's been pacing his cage, nosing the top, trying to escape and he stopped eating. About 3 weeks ago he had a difficult shed and im concerned it didn't all come off but i can't tell. I'm taking him to the vet but it's another week before my vet is available so I'm looking for some advice.

Info about his living quarters: he's in a 40 gallon glass aquarium with a mesh top. It's usually around 88-90 on his warm side and typically 95+ inside his hide. His cool side is around 80F. I keep a large water dish and a towel over the cool side to give him cover and humidity. He just started on weaned rats.

There's been some changes in our household recently which may or may not be the cause. He used to live in the closet (the winters are cold here so the closet kept his temps better) and now he's in the living room. However he lived in the living room before without problems. We also introduced a bird into our home. She's a noisy sun conure. She was checked for respitory infections before I brought her home. We also have a gecko but he's been with us for years now.

Anyway. Any advice is helpful. Thanks!

Bad shed is usually not a concern for a vet and will only cause more stress. Bad shed and pacing enclosure means the husbandry is off, most likely culprit being humidity. You didn't mention it in your post, how are you currently monitoring it?

It's not being monitored right now because my hydrometer broke. I'll be ordering another soon. But I do most the cage occasionally and the lamp is over the large water dish. And a towel is over his cage which occasionally I dampen.

def get that replaced ASAP. Different rooms in your house have different ambient humidity levels. Even if you're doing everything like you were before, your humidity may have dropped enough to induce bad sheds and stress.

Do you think it's strange that he seems to be completely avoiding his warm hide? It hasn't changed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Banaunners

Do you think it's strange that he seems to be completely avoiding his warm hide? It hasn't changed.

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To be fair NONE of my Royals would go anywhere near a 95F hide ...

88- 92 max I'd say from experience ..

Have you checked the temps recently !?

Maybe the probe has moved and it's even higher than 95?

I have a couple of digital temp guns to check hide temps randomly ...


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zincubus

To be fair NONE of my Royals would go anywhere near a 95F hide ...

88- 92 max I'd say from experience ..

Have you checked the temps recently !?

Maybe the probe has moved and it's even higher than 95?

I have a couple of digital temp guns to check hide temps randomly ...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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It may be alittle warm but it's been warm before and he hasn't done this. I will try lowering it and seeing if that changes anything.

That hot hide is way too hot. Whats heating it and is it regulated so you can bump it down? A few things, you said he's 2 years but only now switched to weaned rats? I'm guessing he's pretty small then? 40g. For a small BP would need a ton of fillers to make them feel secure. And since he's in a tank I would bet your humidity is too low.

I bumped it down to 88F two days ago and he's still avoiding it. He is fairly small but he's growing steadily and he likes to eat 2 rats or 2 mice per feeding so that's what I've been doing. He has the same fillers in his tank and he's had for the past year, not much has changed. I am addressing the humidity problem... I live in a really humid place so I can't imagine it's gotten very low.

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I bumped it down to 88F two days ago and he's still avoiding it. He is fairly small but he's growing steadily and he likes to eat 2 rats or 2 mice per feeding so that's what I've been doing. He has the same fillers in his tank and he's had for the past year, not much has changed. I am addressing the humidity problem... I live in a really humid place so I can't imagine it's gotten very low.

2 rats seems like an awful lot of food for a male BP. How much does he weigh?

They're just weaned rats, they're not very big. Plus he's not eating right now anyway...

Do you have a temp gun to check the temps or how are you judging them? I'd guess either too hot or stressed from the bird, is there a thermostat on your heat source? Is it an undertank heater?

I solved a similar problem in mine by effectively covering the whole floor of the viarium in cork bark with a fake plant stuck in the middle. Only uncovered area is stuffed with water bowls. After a settling in period mines eating again.

Try increasing the hides, totally empty and clean the vivarium to destroy any and all scent traces, then let them adust to it for a week or two. If you have the husbandry correct this probably will work. I figured that making it seem like a new rodent burrow to live in might help, after all if there's too much snake smell its going to make hunting harder.